“...after -20 you don’t really notice the difference...”
Absolutely disagree. I’ve been in 35 below in Butte and Bozeman, this was in ‘02 or ‘03, and there were several days in the mid-minus-40s back when I was bartending in East Grand Forks Minnesota in the early ‘80s.
There is a magnititude if difference between, say, zero or five below and 25 below-—and yet you hear people in slightly warmer climes all the time saying, “After zero it all feels the same.”
Ditto 20 below or so compared with 35 or 40 below. The latter temps will freeze your nose, start to freeze your lungs and begin to sting your fingers and toes almost immediately. You just can’t function very well unless you have the best and warmest of clothing and equipment.
Twenty below you can run out and shovel for 20 minutes in a parka, mittens and muck boots.
Forty-five below and you are asking for trouble.
In Grand Forks that week when we had nearly -50 below they were closing everything except a couple bars, including the one I worked at. On the worst morning I went out to start my newer Honda Accord and when I slammed the door shut the latch mechanism shattered. Simply burst and fell all over on the ground.
Sorry to go on so long here....but I dig the cold and have spent lots of time experiencing/observing it. Never been to Alaska and I’d be curious to hear from those guys....
I remember the windchill charts where you skin could freeze in 60, 30 or 15 seconds. The colder it was, the faster you walked to the car.
Okay let's go with
cold 0 to -10
Cold -10 to -30 and
Cold -30 to -40 and finally
COLD below -40.
Right now where I am it is 65 degrees. Brrr.